of detail, however interesting they may be, let us, Gentlemen, always keep these general principles in view. eeive. While engaged in matters most strikingly the case at the last sort. of general breaking-up in Essex. The bank, or, rather, the banks (for I believe there were five in the county,) the headquarters, or mother nest, being at Chelmsford were guaranteed, on the 24th of February, by sixtynine persons, whose names were put to the declaration of confi MORE SMASHING OF ROOKS. The week before last dence, with the sum of money saw some glorious smashing in These are things so worthy of followed by a breaking of the was expressed. This has been for such exquisite fun, that they 1 ought to be preserved were they this place in December last, to diminish the confidence then expressed in considered merely as matter to the solidity of the Banks of Messrs. put our risible faculties in motion. Sparrow & Co. But, they are matter for History It was then proposed, also; they are matter for the warning of our children's children not, to suffer to be brought upon them and upon their children the desolating and degrading curse of paper-money. I shall, therefore, insert, first the declaration of confidence, and, then, the notification of the bankers of the necessity which they were under to suspend their payments, which notification the reader will find dated just FIVE CLEAR DAYS after the - declaration of confidence! Chelmsford, 24th Feb. 1826. BANKS OF MESSRS. SPARROW & Co. That those who are desirous of subscribing an engagement in the following terms, should do so; when the following persons present desired their names to be subscribed, and the amounts hereafter specified to be set against their respective names: "We, the undersigned, do severally guarantee the payment of the Promissory Notes of Messrs. Sparrow and Co. for the term of six months, from the present day, in the amount set against our respective names, in case the assets of the firm shall be found insufficient to effect that purpose." T. G. Bramston £.1000 H. Wolton...... 300 R. Andrews 4000 W. G. Coesvelt.. 1000 .... 500 500 ... 500 500 100 500 500 500 500 500 500 100 500 500 500 500 300 T. Corder...... R. Vachell...... 1000 J. Carter 250 200 200 500 500 Lowe, Lowe and 500 Thorne ...... 500 500 C. C. Parker.... 500 R. H. Crabb.... 1000 .... 300 500 500 300 500 500 MESSRS. SPARROW & CO. Jover the country. These decla ARE deeply concerned to inform rations of confidence had their the Public, that, owing to the unex-rise in the recommendation of the ampled and long-continued pressure upon their Banks, they feel them- Meeting at the Mansion House, selves under the painful necessity of on the motion of the "plethora"suspending their payments for the present, notwithstanding the recent and repeated public expressions of confidence in their favour. At the same time they pledge themselves, that there will be an abundance of assets to satisfy every demand which can be made upon them. doctor, Doctor BARING. My readers will recollect that that celebrated Meeting cried out with voice unanimous, "Confidence, confidence, confidence!" To work went the wiseacres all over the With that feeling deeply impressed country, just as they used to do upon their minds, they are not only willing to make a full and open dis-in declaring against Jacobins and closure of the state of their Accounts Levellers in PITT's days of gloto three or five Gentlemen of acknowledged character and reputation; but rious humbug. But, they had. they are also desirous to be guided now a different sort of enemy to in their future conduct by the dec▸ deal with. They had now our sion of such Gentlemen, after the closest investigation of their affairs. Messrs. Sparrow and Co. therefore most earnestly request the attendance of their friends at the Shire-Hall, Chelmsford, on Saturday next, at eleven o'clock, to nominate the most eligible persons for that purpose, or to proceed in such other way as at such Meeting shall be deemed most expedient and satisfactory. Chelmsford, 2d March, 1826. good and trusty old friend, the DEBT, to tackle, and that was not. to be put down by declarations of confidence. In almost every in stance, these declarations have been almost immediately followed by the fall of the rooks that they were intended to keep on wing. They have deceived some persons indeed; and those persons may curse them; but I must say, that This is a pretty good specimen they are entitled to very little of what has taken place nearly all pity. It is curious enough that these would say upon this very interest wiseacres of Essex should have guaranteed the Banks of SPARRow and Co., for six months, and that the Banks should have stood only six days afterwards. This guarantee is, however, a pure fallacy; a pure delusion; for, there is no law by which any holder of one of SPARROW's notes can compel these guaranteers to pay it. This is my opinion; and, if this opinion be correct, what are we to say of these men. It is not quite clear to me, that they are not liable to a process of another sort, provided that there be no law whereby to recover the amount of the notes from them. The in tention of the parties must have been to induce people to confide in the Banks. If the parties sign ing be not answerable in law for the payment of Sparrow's notes, I am not to be made to believe that these parties are quite clear of all offence in the eye of the law. If I held one of SPARROW'S ing subject. However, all disputes of this sort will probably soon be put an end to by the extinction of the whole of the paper system; and the current coin of the realm will put us all at our ease upon this subject. Not a week passes without the bursting of six or seven bubbles. Now it breaks out in one place, now in another place; it visits every part of the kingdom. The paper thing is assailed from quarters where it least expects it; like a regular column marching through a woody country; like Ross when he was marching against Baltimore, where the base and perfidious merchants were ready to open their gates to him, the thing is annoyed from behind bushes and lumps of rock; and, at last, it will take to its heels and scamper off, if it be not totally destroyed, before it be well aware of its danger. THE ROOK-RAG BILL notes, I would try what the law Well did Mr. ROBINSON name * these things when he called them then be a farmer, who is liable to “worthless rags,” and in earnest just the same sort of process the did I think him, when he talked of moment his rent becomes due; putting an end to them. The Bill, and that, too, observe, though he however, seems to lag heavily may have more than the amount along. It drags somewhere. It of the rent to set off against his does not pass glibly, though the landlord. No man in his sober time is fast approaching when it senses will live in England be ought to go into effect. It was cause he is liable to just this same deprived of much of its efficiency sort of process, if he cannot or will not pay any tax or any rate. In short, no man in his sober senses will be a banker if a poor man can compel him to pay his note; by the rejection of the clause proposed by Mr. HUME for compelling bankers to pay their notes in gold on pain of distress issuing against them from a magistrate. but, if there be not this summary If bankers meant to pay in gold, process, the poor man has no prothey would naturally have no ob-cess at all. Not thus thinks Mr. HUME, however, who on Monday night last, after the speech which here follows, presented another petition jection to such a clause; but, if they intended not to pay in gold, but to fob off the holders of their notes by a tender of Bank of England notes; then their objection upon this subject. "Mr. Hume had great good sense in it. OBE-" presented a petition from Mr. DIAH GURNEY said distinctly that" William Martin of Seven Oaks, no man would be a country bank-in Kent, setting forth that on a no man in his sober senses" certain day, named in the pe"would be a country banker if he "tition, he presented at the bank "were exposed to such process."" in that neighbourhood 18 11. This is pretty well, to be sure." bank notes and two 57. notes, No man in his sober senses would" issued by the same bank, and er; 66 |